US2579704A - Removable tray rack construction - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 25, 1951 s. SAUL, JR 2,579,704

REMOVABLE TRAY RACK CCNSTRUCTION Filed Feb. 14, 1947 3nvenfor Sam-noel .SauLJr:

attorneys Patented Dec. 25, 1951 REMOVABLE TRAY RACK CONSTRUCTION Samuel Saul, J12, Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, acor-poration of the United States Application February .14, 1947, Serial No. 728,687

70laims. 1 This invention relates to rack constructions having removable trays and relates particularly to the construction of the rack.

Racks have heretofore been developed for use in industrial establishments which are mounted on a base. The base may or may not be on casters, depending upon whether the rack is to be more or less permanently located in one position or is to be freely movable about the plant. Removable trays are provided for these racks into which work pieces are placed by a particular machinist, for example, as he finishes some operation on the work piece. For example, in the mass production of various types of machinery and equipment a given machinist may perform a certain machining operation on a succession of like pieces of machinery. He may remove these from one tray, do the work which is necessary and put them back into another tray. When the tray has been filled it may be carried away, either as an individual 'unit or in conjunction with other trays on the same rack.

As generally constructed, these racks comprise a base having an upright structure, the upright structure having a series of closely spaced hooks thereon onto which the trays may be hung and forwardly from which the trays project. One difiiculty with racks of this kind as heretofore designed has been the fact that frequently the work pieces are quite heavy. The machinist who is placing such apiece of work in the tray has to do so with more or less care in order to prevent the tray from becoming unbalanced and thereby lifting itself clear of the hook at one end of the tray. Sometimes the work piece may weigh as much as fifty or more pounds, and the loading of this into one end of the tray would cause the other end to lift off its hook. This required that the operator use care in the loading of the tray more or less evenly. One important purpose of the present invention is to provide a hook which will prevent the tray from releasing itself in this manner.

Another difiiculty with such racks has been that oftentimes, either as the result of overloading of the tray or accidental bumping against the bottom thereof by the machinist or operator,

the tray would become unhooked thus spilling the contents on the floor and causing damage to the contents as Well as injury tohimself. One important purpose of the present inventionis to provide a removable tray rack construction that will prevent such tilting of thetray from overloading or even from lifting when it is in place on the rack which is accomplished by means of protuberances which extend from the supporting hangers on the back of the tray which fit into correspondingly shaped openings at the base or adjacent of the hooks to lock the tray to the hooks.

.Other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from a study of the following specification taken with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rack constructed in accordance with my invention showing a tray applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged bottom view taken along line II- II of Fig. 1 showing the position of the tray when locked onto the hooks of therack;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary bottom view similar to Fig. '2, except that the tray is shown moved laterally from theposition shown in Fig. 2 and in the unlocked position;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line V--V of Fig. 2, and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI o'f Fig.2.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 1, numeral i denotes a base, preferably of sheet metal, supported on legs 2 and 3 of similar material, and having uprights 4 and 5 each comprising vertical angle members of substantially inverted V- shape, the lower ends of which are welded or otherwise secured to base I. A top plate 6 will be similarly welded or otherwise secured to the apices of'the V-shapes of uprights 4 and 5 It will be understood that in the event it is desirable to provide a movable rack structure, instead of a stationary one, suitable casters may be placed underneath legs 2 and 3 so that the rack maybe pushed from place toplace as desired. The front angle members or bars are provided with vertically spaced, specially shaped notches which form a plurality of pairs of hooks for supporting a plurality of trays in vertically spaced relationship. These notches, such as 7 and 8, extend downwardly at an angle with respect to the webs of the uprights stand 5 andhave a shape which is best illustrated in Fig. 4. That is,.notch or .slot 7 hasa downwardly inclined portion To, which is conventional in the art, but has in addition thereto a laterally projecting cut-out portion 1b, shown as being substantially semicircular or greater than a semicircle, which latter portion .serves to. lock the tray in place, as will be. seen hereinafter.

More specifically, the tray lfllhasan integral back extension or hanger Illa which extends downwardly at an angle from the back of the tray and which loosely fits into the slot 1. In accordance with the present invention, there is also provided a rounded protuberance or projection integrally formed at the bottom end of extension llla which is shaped in a manner corresponding to the shape of the cut-out portion lb.

As shown more clearly in Fig. 2, the lower end of extension or hanger la is cut out to form bottom slots, such as ltd and file, forming pockets in an otherwise solid structure. An alternate arrangement would be to bend back and slot the lower ends to form such pockets. Instead of making protuberances, such as we, of solid material, they may be formed by rolling the end sheet portion of hanger I a about a circle.

Fig. shows a cross-sectional view taken through the solid or unslotted portion of the extension or hanger Illa projecting from the back of the tray.

In operation, assume that the tray Ill is removed from the rack and that the machinist or operator wishes to support it on the rack. He accomplishes this operation by aligning the tray with respect to the rack in the manner shown in Fig. 3, that is, by having the locking protuberances, such as lflc, offset laterally with respect to the cut-out portions, such as lb, into which they are eventually to fit. The tray hanger or extension Hla. is then lowered into a pair of slots, such as I and 8. In this position, the tray can readily be lifted away from the hooks or can be tilted somewhat due to the loose fit with notches forming the hooks. chinist or operator then shifts the tray laterally until the end face of the solid portion Hlg (or other equivalent stop member) acts as a stop to limit further endwise or lateral movement of the tray by abutting against the side of the web of one of the uprights, such as 5, so that the protuberance I00 comes into registry with the cutout 'Ib so as to lock therewith. More specifically, the tray is slid from the position shown in Fig.

3 to the position shown in Fig. 2, at which latter position it is no longer possible to either tilt tray ill or to lift it away from the notches forming the hooks because of the restraining or holdingback effect of the rounded out out portions, such as lb; of the slots, which snugly interfit with the V spondingly shaped cut-outs.

Thus it will be seen that a Very effective lock is provided so as to prevent accidental unhooking of the tray from the hooks and spilling of machined parts or other contents such as sometimes caused by bumping by the machinist against the bottom of the tray or from excessive overloading. Thus greatersafety is provided so as to protect the operator. The only way in which the operator can remove the tray Hi from the rack is to slide it from the position shown in Fig. 2 to that shown in Fig. 3 so as to remove protuberance I00 from registry with the rounded cut-out portion 1b so that the tray will be again in a position to be removed from the rack merely by lifting thereof along slots 1 and 8.

While a rounded protuberance I60 and a correspondingly shaped notch portion 1b are shown, it should be noted that other shapes would serve equally well, such as polygonal shapes either at the base of or removed from the slot, so long as The ma- 1 the protuberance and slots are similarly shaped to provide an interlocking relationship. It will be understood, of course, that a plurality of trays, such as [0, each seated on a pair of hooks formed from a pair of notches, are provided along the height of the framework 4 and 5.

Thus it will be seen that I have provided an efficient rack construction which is very simple in construction and economical to manufacture and which provides a positive lock between the tray and hooks of the rack so as to prevent unseating or accidental spilling of the tray.

While I have illustrated and described certain specific embodiments of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of my invention and within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A rack construction comprising an upright supporting structure including parallel inclined load-carrying bars having forwardly projecting flanges, said flanges being notched to provide a series of hooks which taper upwardly and outwardly to a point, the lower end of each of said notches having a laterally extending cut-out portion, and a removable tray structure having a hanger on its back portion to engage with selected hooks formed by said notches, said hanger including a pair of laterally offset protuberances adapted to snugly fit said laterally offset cut-out portions, said hanger including pockets at the lower end thereof to facilitate seating of the tray on the hooks, the end portion of one pocket serving as a stop to limit lateral movement of the tray on the rack structure by abutting against said forwardly projecting flanges.

2. A rack construction comprising an upright supporting structure including parallel inclined load-carrying bars having forwardly projecting flanges, said flanges being notched to provide a series of hooks which taper upwardly and outwardly to a point, the lower ends of each of the notches having a substantially rounded laterally extending cut-out portion, and a removable tray having a hanger portion formed from a downwardly inclined integral back portion of the tray, which hanger portion is adapted to be supported by a pair of hooks formed by a pair of said notches, the lower ends of said hanger portion having a pair of laterally offset, rounded protuberances adapted to snugly fit into said rounded laterally extending cut-out portions, said hanger including pockets at the lower end thereof to facilitate seating of the tray. on the hooks, the end portion of one pocket serving as a stop to limit lateral movement of the tray on the rack structure by abutting against said forwardly projecting flanges. a

3. A rack construction comprising an upright supporting structure including parallel inclined load-carrying bars having forwardly projecting flanges, said flanges being notched to provide a series of hooks at spaced intervals therealong, the lower ends of each of the notches having a later ally extending cut-out portion, and a removable.

against movement out of supporting engagement on said hooks.

4. A rack construction comprising an upright supporting structure including parallel inclined load-carrying bars having forwardly projecting flanges, said flanges being notched to provide a series of hooks at spaced intervals therealong, each of said notches having a laterally and upwardly extending cut-out portion, and a removable tray having an extension projecting downwardly and angularly to provide a hanger for supporting engagement on said hooks, and a laterally offset member secured to said extension and movable by an endwise movement of the tray into said laterally extending cut-out portion to interlock said extension and thereby said tray against movement out of supporting engagement on said hooks.

5. A rack and tray construction comprising a rack with a support having hooks thereon, a tray with supporting hanger members at the back thereof adapted to be engaged by a substantially vertical movement of the tray over selected ones of the hooks for supporting the tray on the rack, and interlocking elements on the hooks and said members, respectively, movable into interlocking engagement by an endwise and substantially horizontal movement of the tray relative to the hook on which it is hung for restraining the tray when so interlocked against removal from the hook in a vertical direction.

6. A rack and tray construction comprising a rack having a supporting angle with a forwardly projecting flange, said flange having notches therein at spaced intervals providing a series of hooks therealong, a tray having hanger elements at the back thereof movable into supporting engagement on said hooks by a movement of the tray such that the tray parts move in planes parallel to the plane of said flange, said flanges each having cut-out portions providing recesses extending angularly to and in communication with said notches, and an interlocking member movab e in a direction perpendicular to the plane of said flange into a position interlocked in said recess to provide an interlock between said tray "and flange preventing movement of said hanger elements out of supporting engagement on said hooks withoutfirst moving interlocking member out of said recess.

7. In a rack and tray construction, a tray hav-- ing a hanger member extending along one side thereof, said hanger member being provided with an elongated recess for the reception of a supporting hook, and a locking protuberance on said hanger member parallel to and extending alongside said recess but of a length less than said recess.

SAMUEL SAUL, JR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent: l

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 608,629 Wood Aug. 9, 1898 1,273,397 Neill July 23, 1918 1,340,317 Borden May 18, 1920 1,423,861 Levene July 25, 1922 1,473,817 Gorsline Nov. 13, 1923 1,802,245 Foretich Apr. 21, 1931 1,806,642 Ohnstrand May 26, 1931 2,316,892 Saul Apr. 20, 1943 2,356,473 Saul Aug. 22, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 455,281 Great Britain Oct. 13, 1936

Images